TOP NEWS

Thursday, July 15, 1999

Interview with David Cremin, Zone Ventures

David Cremin is a partner at Zone Ventures, the downtown based offshoot
of bay area Venture Capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Zone has been
making waves with the Zone Club, the oft quoted Tim Draper, and their
exclusive focus on Los Angeles.

Next week we'll hear from Scott Painter of CarsDirect.com and Sunil
Mehotra of KnowledgeLink.

David Cremin:

BK: Zone's been active since last year, what do you think of the
investment opportunities you've seen so far here in LA?

DC: The investment opportunities are tremendous here in Southern California!
That is why Tim Draper opened the office in November, 1998. We are seeing
fantastic technology and new media companies. As broadband matures, we will
see more and more opportunity for Hollywood to migrate into the internet.
We think that Los Angeles will be a huge information technology center. All
the pieces are here.

BK: What do you see as the biggest challenge or opportunity Zone and other
VCs have in the LA market?

DC: It is the newness of the Southern California Technology market that is
the opportunity for everyone focusing here right now. The biggest challenge
is human capital: how to nurture, attract and/or retain great talent. Great
executives are here, the infrastructure simply isn't as developed as, for
example, Silicon Valley.

That is why we founded the Zone Club, whose mission it is to unite Southern
California entrepreneurs, media professionals, venture capital firms,
students, and others to provide a forum for high-end leadership discussion
and interaction. In that sense, we see our efforts in this area as the
opportunity for Southern California to mature rapidly.

In addition we funded a group that will create an online magazine/community
for Southern California specifically. Zone Communications, this "Town
Crier" so to speak, will help affect the technology culture in the same way
Upside Magazine impacted Silicon Valley. Zone Communications will help
organize and focus on the technology culture, the market and the
entrepreneur heroes in Southern California.

BK: What kind of advice would you give Los Angeles based entrepreneurs who
want to get your attention?

DC: Los Angeles-based entrepreneurs, who want our attention should get to
know our firm by visiting our web site at www.zonevc.com. By doing so they
will get to know our areas of interest. And of course, they should have a
great idea, in a large market, know the competition, and have a fantastic
management team with a unique ability to execute. These were the
qualities that attracted us to companies like eStyle, Inc. and
babystyle.com, Zcentral.com, Showbizdata.com, Static Online, Rocket Radio
and Allpets.com.

Most of all, we look for the passion and drive, which are necessary to pull
off a startup.